Waygooks Wandering

It's strange to think that we have been in Korea for the entire year of 2014 and that this is now our second Christmas in Daegu. It becomes really taxing being in Korea around the holidays. Home sickness gets really hard because Koreans celebrate Christmas in a really different way than in Western countries. As I said last year, Christmas in Korea is a couples holiday. Some of the Christian people might go to church, but the restaurants and stores are all open and really busy on Christmas. It's the total opposite of what it is like at home, which makes it hard to be here for the holidays.

Gianni and I tried to make it as Christmas-y as possible though. We spent a bit less on each other than we did last year, since we want to make sure we have a nice time in China. But we still got presents for each other to put under the tree (small and plastic though it may be) and in each others' stockings (though they are small and not the ones Aunt Nancy made us). On Christmas Eve, Gianni worked really hard on dinner. He made some tasty chili and potato latkes (we got a little bit of Hanukkah in our Christmas). It was nice to have a good Christmas Eve dinner, according to my traditions, even if it wasn't ham and all the Christmas dishes I'm used to. Instead of opening Christmas PJ pants on Christmas Eve (my family's tradition), Gianni and I gave each other 2 pairs of Korean socks to open instead. I got two pairs with mustaches on them that are pretty amazing (I love mustache socks). I gave him a pair with a guy with a head of poop giving the thumbs up and another pair that have a thumbs down symbol and say "안좋아요," or "not good," on them. Thoroughly happy with all our sock presents I think. We watched Wolf of Wallstreet finally that night. What a LONG movie, and completely un-Christmas-y. It was still good though.

On Christmas morning, Gianni and I woke up a bit early to make sure we got to talk to our parents. We opened our presents first. I mostly gave Gianni Korean knock-off legos. He got a pirate set that he saw at a store and really wanted. I made him put it down because I had already gotten it for him. I also got him some amazing Simpsons legos. I got as many of the characters as I could find at the store. Each character comes with some other little object that you have to put together, like a desk or a mailbox or something. Gianni is already finished putting everything together. I'm very proud of my gift-giving ability. He also got some touch-screen gloves that fit nicely. Gianni gave me some nice things too--candies and cookies mostly. He gave me one Japanese candy kit that I'm really excited to try. Apparently, in Japan they have a lot of these kits where you can mix or make some sort of candy yourself. I really like the idea, and I've seen people do them before. They are really cool. I also got some nice notebooks, a Tutoro ring and pin, and Christmas pencils. After opening gifts, we started making Christmas morning breakfast. It was no where near the elaborate one my mom makes with wife-saver and a cinnamon bun Christmas tree, but it was the best I could do. Gianni made eggs and bacon while I made french toast for the first time ever. I think I did a decent job. We cooked while talking to our parents on skype. They were all at my house for Christmas Eve dinner at the time. I don't know what I would do without skype. It was also great to see the Bonica family: my lovely cousins, aunt, and uncle. After a nice long chat, we signed off to eat our breakfast and let them get back to their little party. We spent the day watching TV together before our lovely Christmas dinner with our friends.

We are so blessed to have the best friends in the world in Korea. Honestly, over this past year, they have truly become our second family. They make being away from our families over the holidays an actually bearable experience. Sian was wonderful and made a reservation for 20 people at Ariana Hotel's buffet restaurant for Christmas dinner. It was ten-fold better than last year's crazy trip to Busan. Ariana, like most restaurants in Korea on Christmas, was super busy when we arrived at 6pm. It got less busy as the night went on, and we didn't end up leaving the restaurant until like 10pm. Ariana is a buffet that makes its own beer too. It's a kind of expensive place, but you get free beer and wine included, so we definitely made the price worth it. We all ate a lot of food, drank a lot of beer and wine, and danced to the music when the band started playing later in the night. All the Korean kids out with their families were dancing adorably by the stage too. We even did a Yankee Swap with about 15 people. Gianni ended up with way better gifts this year than he did last year. He got an ax pen and a funny chicken button, and I got a kit for staying warm in the winter, which included a mug and hot coco, hot packs, and a dragon microwave hand warmer. It was a really fun evening spent with awesome friends as well as some cool new people. The food was delicious as was the wine. It was a really great Christmas, even though we didn't get to be home for it.

The week and weekend before Christmas were pretty low-key but fun. We took the week off from taekwondo because we needed it after practicing everyday for just over a week before our black  belt test. We did a couple of new things and hung out with our friends instead.

Last Tuesday night, we met up with Niall and Tara at a board game cafe we had never been to before. They are friends with the owner, so they go there all the time. Although it has board games, it is more of a cafe, so not the same selection of board games as we usually get. The food there looked amazing though, and I'd love to go back for dinner. I just got a chocolate muffin with ice cream on it. It was huge and delicious for only $4. Our board game cafe doesn't have food or alcohol, so I would definitely go back to this place too. I think it just depends on whether you are more interested in playing a ton of different games or whether you want some dinner and you are happy playing a limited selection of games. This cafe also had a few adorable cats walking around that would steal your seat if you got up to order. Too cute! Niall and Tara taught us to play a game we had never played before called Citadel. It was really fun, and I definitely want to play it again. It was really nice to spend a few hour with Niall and Tara because it has been so long since we'd seen them. It was a really fun night.

On Wednesday night, we did another thing we haven't done in a while: quiz night. Maria, Matthew, Gianni, and I called our team Mr. Plow (Simpsons reference). There was one Christmas round, but the other ones were sex and name the movie from the picture. As usual, it was really fun. Our team ended up tying for first place! To decide which team got first and which got second, Niall and the other quiz-makers decided to have us write down the names of all Santa's reindeer and the items that go along with all 12 days of Christmas in the song. Both teams managed to name all of them, so them we just had to rock, paper, scissor for it. Although we suggested simply splitting all the money in half for each team instead of going for first and second place, because the second place team gets significantly less than the first place one, the other team didn't want to take the offer. Maria is the best at rock, paper, scissors, so she won us first place! It was awesome. We won 133,000 won for the team! Not bad at all. Paid off our Christmas presents this year and our dinner for that night.

Thursday night was the end of year teacher dinner. We went to a really expensive buffet called Ashley at Daegu Tower. It's a Western style buffet where they serve little pieces of cheesecake for dessert that are amazing. The dinner was excellent. The school even did a raffle where some of the teachers could win money. My number was 44 though, so I had double bad luck. In Korea, the number 4, or "sa," is bad luck because "sa" also means "dead" in Chinese. I didn't win any money, but a few of my coteachers did. After dinner, my main coteacher, Sun Mi, wanted to go up to the base of the tower. Even though she's from Daegu, she had never been there before. It's so surprising what people don't do in their own cities. She didn't go up the tower, but even from the base, you can get a nice view of the city. We walked down the path back to the restaurant outside. They decorate it with all kinds of Christmas lights, so it's really pretty. Gianni and I were going to go to taekwondo that night, but the bus took longer than expected to get home with all the traffic. Oh well, too bad. (You can hear how disappointed I was *hahaha*)

Friday night, Gianni and I went with Sian, Thomas, Maria, and Matthew to see The Hobbit. I think the general consensus was that it was way better than the last movie. It still had tons of horrible CGI, but it was more fun. They could easily have put the first 20 minutes of this movie into the last one, and the ending of the last one would have been much better. Anyway, splitting a really short book into 3 movies was insane, but whatever. It's annoying that that's the new Hollywood trend.

The weekend before Christmas was spent baking. I baked both Saturday and Sunday all day, and I barely left the house. On Saturday, I made banana bread muffins, nutella cupcakes, and my mom's Christmas frogs (most people call them haystacks). It feels much more like Christmas for me having those frogs in the house. I divided it all up to give to our coteachers as their Christmas presents, so we didn't eat all of it ourselves. It would have been gross if we had. It was A LOT of baked goods. On Sunday, Maria and Matthew came over to bake with us. Matthew really like anise cookies, and I made them last year, so he wanted more. Matthew made buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate) in the kitchen while I made anise cookies. I made entirely too many anise cookies. I made one batch with a recipe that Auntie Teresa gave us before they came over to the house, but I decided that it wasn't enough, and I wanted to make a different recipe that I had a home to see what the difference in taste was. I can't really tell the difference in the end, and both are really good. But the second recipe I made had 7 cups of flour! That should have been the indicator that it was a huge recipe. It made too many cookies. It was also a lot stickier and harder to roll into balls. I think I'll stick with Auntie Teresa's recipe. Anyway, we sent Maria and Matthew home with lots of cookies, and I had enough to give one to each of my coteacher as well as a whole tray to bring to the taekwondo Christmast party we have tonight (day after Christmas). Gianni gave his coteacher 1 cupcake and 1 muffin each, and I gave mine 2 frogs, 1 anise cookie, and a bookmark I made each. I think they all appreciated the effort I made in baking them. A lot of things in Korea are labeled "handmade," and I think they really appreciate handmade things in Korea. Baking is way more fun than cooking, in my opinion.

The week of Christmas, I just watched The Santa Clause with my kids. They really liked it I think. They were laughing and getting really into it. After this week, there are just three days of class next week, and I really don't feel like actually teaching (and they don't feel like learning). They just informed me that my third grade classes are cancelled for the last 4 days of the semester, which is kind of sad because I like teaching 3rd grade, and the kids are graduating, so I don't get to see them anymore. At least it gives me time to continue planning my travel-themed camp and our vacation to China in January. I need a vacation!

Gianni and I were completely dedicated to taekwondo last week. We went every night to practice our forms for our black belt test. We felt really confident about them going into our black belt test on Saturday afternoon. Luckily, we didn't have to wake up as early as Serena did for her test, but we did have to wait for quite some time beforehand. We met at the gym at 12pm on Saturday, but we didn't end up actually doing our test until around 4:30pm. It was a long time to wait and watch, and I definitely started to get nervous as the children were finishing their tests.

Me doing the 8th form at the back, and Gianni doing the 3rd

The way the black belt test is structured is that everyone demonstrates 3 of the 8 forms and does a minute of sparring in groups of 6. The first form is the same for everyone: the 8th and most recently learned form. The second form is, again, the same for everyone, but for this one, the form is chosen at the start of the day. For our test, it was the 3rd form. The last form is completely random, and the judge changes it with each group of 6 testers, so you don't know what exactly it will be until you get in front of the judge. Gianni and I both were asked to do the 5th form. The last step is sparring, and it's pretty simple. You just have to remember to kick with both your legs, do high kicks, and do a variety of different kicks.

Gianni doing the 8th form

Me doing the 8th form

When it was finally time for our test, we were arranged in our groups. I was only in a group of 3 because I guess there weren't enough adults testing to make a full group. I was a little worried because I was supposed to have taken off all my jewelry beforehand, but I don't actually know how to take off my cartilage piercing. It cause a bit of a disturbance among the people checking us in, but Master Hwang got it sorted out. I was in a group with one guy from our gym and another girl who was from another gym. The forms went by really quickly  because I was totally nervous. Still, Gianni and I are both confident about our performances. I don't think I made any mistakes on the forms. My leg did start shaking at the end of the last one, but that was partially because it was really cold once you got to the stadium floor, away from all the heaters. So we moved on to the last part: sparring. I was paired with the girl who was in the forms group with me. Now, it is my understanding that this sparring is meant to be friendly because we both need to make sure we get some kicks in to pass the test. At practice, some of the girls at my gym and I were basically just taking turns doing some kicks, and that was fine. Well apparently this girl didn't get the memo. She started in on me really fast, kicking me really hard. Gianni and his partner in the group before me were actually told to stop kicking so hard by their judge, so I'm not sure why our judge didn't stop us. Anyway, the girl started kicking me hard and made me fall. Then, she proceeded to kick me in the face! After that, I completely forgot the rules of what I was supposed to be doing to pass the test, and I just wanted to go after her. I kicked her as hard as I could and made her fall once. I know I kicked with both my legs, but I'm not sure I did enough variety of kicks. Master Hwang said I did well though.

Gianni sparring (left)

Me sparring (right)

After the test, the girl was very apologetic about kicking me in the face because I don't think she meant to. Still, I now have a cut/bruise on my lip, and it hurts to open my jaw very wide. It's better than it felt on Saturday though, so nothing really damaged. I felt like a baby, but I definitely got teary-eyed afterwards because I was in some degree of pain. I tried not to cry because I was with the other gym members and Master Hwang, but they kept noticing me getting teary and pointing it out, which only made things worse. We all went out for dinner afterwards, but I kind of just wanted to go home and take some motrin. Oh well! Master Hwang called it my "injury of glory!"

Despite the knocks I took during it, I think I did really well on my black belt test overall. Gianni feels good too. I thought we would have to wait a few weeks to find out if we passed, but Master Hwang just called to let me know that Gianni and I both passed! We are officially black belts!!! yay! We do have to still wait for the actual belts with our names on them though, but that's ok. Now, we need a little break for this week.

This past weekend, Gianni and I practiced taekwondo with Max both days because it is just one week before our black belt test! It's really scary, but we are getting some good work in, and I think we should be ok...at least I hope so! I hate doing tests like this though. I always get really nervous and screw up in front of Master Hwang. The black belt test is at a big stadium place with judges scrutinizing us, so I just hope I do well. We plan to go almost everyday this week to make sure we have everything perfect.

Even though we did a lot of practicing, we also found some time to do some fun stuff too. One thing I

love about a city like Daegu is that there is always something new to do--something I haven't seen or a restaurant I haven't eaten at. On Friday night, Lily invited me to go out for her birthday girl's night. We started at a new restaurant called Bubba's where they have delicious salads and pizza. I got a ricotta cheese salad, and it was basically some lettuce with a big glob of ricotta on top with some nuts and dried fruit. It was alright, but probably too much cheese. Next time, I'll get the 4 cheese pizza! After that, we went probably the coolest place I've ever been: a wine and hookah bar that smelled of incense and was very dimly lit. There were Indian-style wall hanging all over the place, and we sat on a bunch of pillows on the landing on top of a staircase. It was like our own little alcove. The whole place was very relaxing and romantic. I'm definitely going back there. After spending a few hours chatting there and drinking our bottle of wine, we went to gogos and got cocktails in a bag to bring with us to the noraebang. We spent an hour or so singing some lovely songs before heading home. It was an awesome birthday party, and I had a great time. Happy Birthday Lily!

On Saturday after we finished practicing, we met Maria and Matthew downtown for a game night at the board game cafe. Beforehand, we went to dinner at a jjimdak place they had been to before. Jjimdak is chicken in a thin, brown marinade with thin rice noodles, potatoes, and other veggies. We also got it topped with cheese. It was really delicious. I was so full when we finished eating it. The restaurant is called Rose or something having to do with roses, so they give your table a rose made of soap when you go. They also had a spin the wheel at the front of the store, so I spun it before we left, and I won another soap flower. We also got 4,000 won off our meal because we each posted a photo of it on facebook. We played 6 games at the board game cafe, and I think it's safe to say that Maria has won our little contest to see who could win the most games this year. That means Maria is going to get a pair of socks from each of us.

Sunday we went back over to Max's for an hour-long practice session. Afterwards, he took us over to EMart Traders. EMart Traders is like a Korean Costco. They have stuff you can buy in bulk, but it is mostly Korean brands and foods. Still, they have some good stuff. We had some food at the delicious food court and did a little bit of shopping. Gianni and I are buying some gifts for two orphans for the charity called Daegu Time to Give. We have a preschool boy and a preschool girl. At EMart Traders, Gianni got the boy a truck filled with all kinds of toy cars, and I got the girl a Frozen drawing set and some extra markers. I hope the kids will like them!

This year, I am thankful for how easy it is to celebrate Thanksgiving in Korea. We did, roughly, the same thing as last year, so we got to celebrate the holiday twice with different groups of friends.

28 pound monster turkey!

On Friday night, we went to Max and Serena's house for their wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. They made a ham and a 28 pound turkey! It was massive, and they sent everyone home with leftovers. I made an apple crisp (with real Quaker oats that I brought back from home this summer) and two loaves of pumpkin bread. Serena bought me the pumpkin spice and canned pumpkin for the recipe on base, which was really nice of her. The recipe was huge, and this was the first time I had ever made it. I think it turned out really well. This year, Lily and Jonathan, two of our teacher friends who we don't see often, also came to Serena and Max's. Serena and Lily know each other from their running group. It was really nice to be able to see them as well. Everyone brought side dishes, and they were all really good, especially Deb's cornbread casserole!





On Sunday, our teacher friends ordered the turkey from the English magazine, The Daegu Compass, like last year. This time though, we had the dinner at Marie and Ben's new apartment since it's also a bigger place. Marie is a fantastic cook and baker. Everyone brought the side dishes to go along with the turkey. Again, our friends are amazing chefs. I brought some corn bread muffins and a pumpkin pie I bought from Costco. There were about 14 of us at their place, and it was really nice to catch up with people we don't always see.

I'd say Thanksgiving was successful again. Even though we don't get the day off from work, at least we can celebrate it with friends.


The Monday after Thanksgiving, a bunch of our friends (Marie, Ben, Thomas, Sian, Maria, Matthew, Gianni, and I) got together and went to one of the photo studios downtown. There are a ton in the main subway station, and I always see teenagers down there crowding around. Big groups of friends will go down there and get their photos taken together. We decided to celebrate December 1st by doing the same. We all got in our best Christmas outfits and took some Christmas pictures together. They take a bunch of pictures for like 10 minutes or so, and then you can pick which ones you want. $7 per person gets you one picture, but we chose 3, which ended up costing about $17 per person. They also edit the pictures for you to make you basically look flawless. I can say that I know why all the celebrities are talking about not wanting their pictures photo-shopped; it feels awful to have it done to you! I watched my legs and butt go from big to small as she edited, and it feels really judgey. That was the only bad part of the experience. I know they just wanted to make the pictures good, but the editor was pointing out all my flaws and correcting them. It felt weird. Some of you have probably seen the one I posted on facebook already, but there are two others I'm keeping secret for a Christmas card. They are really cute pictures, and I didn't have any pictures of the 8 of us together, so it's nice to have that now.